Mikel Oyarzabal
Forward · Real Sociedad · Spain
About Mikel Oyarzabal
Mikel Oyarzabal is Real Sociedad's one-club captain and Spain's man for the biggest moments — the forward whose 86th-minute strike won the Euro 2024 final against England. Injury cost him the 2022 World Cup, but he returned to captain Real Sociedad to a second Copa del Rey and become one of the most reliable finishers in Spanish football. He started Spain's 2026 World Cup final win over Argentina on 19 July 2026 — the seventh major final of his career, and the first in which he did not score, ending a run that had begun with the 2020 Copa del Rey final.
Mikel Oyarzabal's story
The One-Club Captain
Oyarzabal joined Real Sociedad's academy in 2011 at 14, made his first-team debut in 2015, and has never worn another club's shirt. He took the captain's armband in 2023 and has since taken his numbers past 400 appearances and 130 goals, renewing his contract to 2028 while retaining a €75m buyout clause that reflects how highly the club values him. A serious anterior cruciate ligament injury in spring 2022 cost him a place at that winter's tournament in Qatar, but he returned within ten months to reclaim his place in Spain's attack.
Spain's Clutch Finisher
Beyond the Euro 2024 final, Oyarzabal's career is built on delivering when it matters most: the winning penalty in the Euro 2020 last-16 shootout against Switzerland, the only goal of the delayed 2020 Copa del Rey final, and the decisive penalty in the second leg of the 2025-26 Copa del Rey semi-final that sent Real Sociedad through to the final, which they went on to win on penalties against Atlético Madrid on 18 April 2026.
From Eibar to Zubieta
Oyarzabal was born in Eibar, in Spain's Basque Country, to Ernesto Oyarzabal and Dorleta Ugarte, and has a younger sister, Elene. He started out at his hometown club, SD Eibar, before Real Sociedad's Zubieta academy — renowned for developing Basque talent — signed him in 2011 at age 14. He was the youth league's top scorer in the 2014-15 season and won the Copa del Rey with Real Sociedad's youth side in 2013-14, before making his first-team debut in October 2015 as a substitute for Carlos Vela.
Business Degree, Basque Roots
Oyarzabal combined his rise through Real Sociedad's ranks with a Business Administration degree at the University of Deusto, completing his studies while playing professional football alongside it. Off the pitch, Real Sociedad has auctioned several of his signed match-worn shirts through the CharityStars platform in aid of Fundación Adsis Gipuzkoa, a Basque charity supporting people at risk of social exclusion.
2026: Champions of the World, Streak Broken
Oyarzabal finished the 2026 World Cup as Spain's top scorer with five goals — level with Emilio Butragueño (1986) and David Villa (2010) for the most by any Spain player in a single World Cup — a tally built from two goals and an assist against Saudi Arabia in the group stage, two more against Austria in the round of 32, and a penalty in the semi-final win over France that also made him Spain's top scorer for the 2025-26 season with 14 international goals, overtaking David Villa's previous Spain record of 13 in a single season. He started the World Cup final on 19 July 2026, which Spain won 1-0 after extra time against Argentina thanks to a Ferran Torres goal, but had a quiet game by his own standards and did not add to his tally — ending, at the seventh attempt, his run of scoring in every major final he had played.
Did you know?
- 🏆 Portuguese outlet Flashscore nicknamed Oyarzabal 'the king of finals' in April 2026 — a scoring streak unmatched among his peers, spanning six major finals for club and country before it eventually came to an end.
- ⚽ His 86th-minute winner secured Spain's Euro 2024 title against England in Berlin — the decisive goal of the tournament, scored as a substitute.
- 👨👩👦 During Spain's World Cup last-32 win over Austria on 2 July 2026, Oyarzabal marked his brace by lifting his shirt to show a message announcing that he and partner Ainhoa Larrauri, a doctor, are expecting their second child.
- 👶 Their first son, born in early December 2023, is named Martín — Oyarzabal missed a handful of matches to be present for the birth.
- 🥋 Before football took over, a young Oyarzabal tried swimming and judo — taking up the latter at his father's insistence, who had practised the sport himself for years.
- 💬 Oyarzabal keeps his priorities blunt: "My son and my partner, my family, my friends… and then football," he has said — helped, he admits, by the fact Ainhoa "doesn't like football that much."
- 🤝 Oyarzabal has never had a traditional football agent — his parents fill that role for him instead.
- 🇨🇻 In Spain's 2026 World Cup opener against Cape Verde on 15 June 2026, Oyarzabal became the first player on record since 1966 to fail to touch the ball in the first 30 minutes of a World Cup match.
- 🏴 Oyarzabal has also turned out for the non-FIFA-affiliated Basque Country national team, scoring on his debut in a 3-1 win over Tunisia at San Mamés in December 2016.
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